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Thursday, March 8, 2018

AND

Step Right Up and take advantage of an exclusive Showtime stamp set, featuring fun, playful, circus-themed icons and sentiments that will be the perfect fit for birthday celebrations, theme park visits, or any fun-filled adventure. This stamp is available on its own or as part of the Step Right Up bundle that pairs the stamp with 12 paper sheets—including 10 cardstock sheets in 5 colors and gold foil paper — gold pearls, and red shimmer trim. Best of all, this bundle is available at a sensational discount!

Showtime Stamp Set D1789

Showtime Bundle CC2184

These two specials go together like peanuts and popcorn!

To create this card and layout, I used several different thin cuts to add embellishments and design elements. Can you spy the different dies used?

How many did you count? The answer is below and the good news is they are all 25% off! Shop on my website for the best deals as all these are while supplies last.

Purchase the star and circle sets individually for 25% off or purchase the basic shape bundle including hearts and ovals for 30% off.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

If you are local to me, join me for my "card buffet" on March 23rd, 7-9 p.m. I will have a variety of card kits available for you to choose from. You will have 2 hours to complete as many cards as you like. $25 for the card buffet event or $10 with a $35 order placed on my website between March 16th through that evening. RSVP by March 16th so I can have a variety of kits ready for everyone.Bring a friend who hasn't stamped with me before and you will get a gift stamp set from me! Use your own adhesive or use my adhesive for $2.

What kind of cards do you want to create? Thank you, birthday, anniversary, get well, sympathy? See you soon,Michele

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Welcome to February! I sure hope this month brings a bit more warmth than what we had in January. Some of my dear friends were in the deep freeze. If you are still in the cold weather, here is some warm, sunny artwork to brighten your day.

If you have arrived here from Darlys' blog, you are following the sunny rays through some fabulous artwork using this stamp set. After you spend your time here, you will travel on to Michelle's blog.

I love the sentiment "you are the sunshine in my pocket" so it was the inspiration for my pocket card. I used paper from the Stargazer paper packet and Circut images from several of the Close to My Heart Cricut cartridges. And here it is!

Want to create this card? Visit your consultants website or shop on my website before the end of the month to purchase this set. Then, use this Cricut file to cut your elements.

Tip #3 Crop out excess sky, landscape or background when necessary

Yes, it is totally ok to trim or crop your photos to accentuate what you really want your photos to focus on. These are the photos I posted in tip #1, my most recent event.

Although this one has a lot of background, the blur of the landscape helps tell the story of movement so I didn't crop this photo.

I am by no means an expert photographer (one of my goals is to take a class) but cropping my photos improves my photo composition. This one has a lot of "snow" white space and the person gets a bit lost in the scenery.

Here's the same photo, cropped narrower. It helps to bring her more in focus. As I look at this, my subject is centered and that doesn't highlight the movement.

Now, I feel like there is movement in the photo.

Finally, I love this photo and don't plan to crop it. The perspective of the car tracks in the snow and how shows activity in the photo.

I like to work with photos that are 4 x 6, 4 x 4 or 4 x 3. Smaller photos can be fun but I tend to use them in more artistic pages where I am taking more time. The purpose of these tips is to make your scrapbooking faster, simpler and easier...so that topic is for a different series.

Want to learn more about cropping? I found this great article on cropping photos. It has great visual explanations and comparisons.

You can crop your photos during your shoot (this is where the photography class comes in), you can crop them on the website where you print them (that is usually what I do), you can crop them in an editing program and then download them for print, or you can print them as taken and crop them as you scrapbook them. Pick the way that works best for you!

About Me

I have discovered my creativity through stamping, scrapbooking and paper crafting. I enjoy showing others how to use Close to My Heart products to find their creative side. Join me in feeling successful in your creativity.